love and blinding light Many people, including many physicists and philosophers, allow the concept that this consciousness is the sort of Almighty God who envelops the Universe, albeit not one as described, for example, in the Bible as violent and narcissistic and frankly, a little crazy. This new God is love and blinding light creating and experiencing the Cosmos, primarily through us, the humans. So, the story goes, humans create Reality with guidance from that all-embracing consciousness.  NEXT

sorry Sorry for the remark about the Buick Wildcat, but it was a great relief to do that in this otherwise unrelentingly humorless accounting of things. To be honest, it's the 1953 Corvette (above) that remains the fondest automobile dream of my life. Human beings, a bunch of them, imagined that car into existence. Good work, folks. NEXT

consciousness forms people If consciousness uses energy and information to create people, among other things, well, people are pretty complex, capable of experience and intent, so consciousness must be seeking experience and it gives the gift of intent in order to obtain that experience. Through people, consciousness creates babies, and grows networks in them, with the most complicated thing in the Universe evolving in their heads, becoming infused with consciousness.  Consciousness is not in the brain; it contains the brain and everything else in the Universe. Some people are more aware...

consciousness contains everything In this image, consciousness is white. It is forming something shown in shades of gray and black. In space, through our eyes, consciousness is black and matter is brightly colored, sparkling with lights. The core of the discussion about us and particles and the Universe is this: “Consciousness and its contents are all that exists. Space-time, matter and fields never were the fundamental denizens of the universe but have always been, from their beginning, among the humbler contents of consciousness, dependent on it for their very being.” Quoting Donald...

...the standard of health, comfort, and happiness experienced by an individual or group; the things that are needed for a good quality of life. Wikipedia says: Quality of life is the general well-being of individuals and societies. Quality of life should not be confused with standard of living, which is based primarily on income and acquisition of stuff. Improving the quality of life is the top priority in hundreds of towns and cities around the world, but especially in the United States, where quality of life determines the quality of the work and thinkforce at all levels. Houston...

By Kaid Benfield We know from exhaustive research that walkable neighborhoods and cities reduce driving, associated emissions, and living costs. Three important academic studies published earlier this year demonstrate that they are good for our health, too. In particular, the research, which examines different aspects of compact, walkable, and mixed-use communities and compares those aspects to published government health data, finds that such neighborhoods and cities are strongly associated with reduced rates of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes. The reason...

“Affordable Housing” has a legal definition in Federal policy and that concept typically has broad support at the municipal level. People seeking a walkable urban lifestyle with easy transit connections among various walkable centers, have found the concept of “affordable housing” is largely used to build low-cost subsidized single-family houses on their own lots on cheap land. That policy requires the owners to use a car to get to nearly all amenities, including jobs. But a car costs nearly $10,000 every year, a big bite out of the affordability budget. Jettisoning that expense...

TAKE SURVEY The 2014 – 2018 Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy in the Gulf Coast Economic Development District sets vision, goals, and strategies for the regional economy. The plan takes direction from the Regional Plan for Sustainable Development created by the Houston-Galveston Area Council with significant community input. Perhaps the most powerful of the plan’s eight goals is this one: Our region’s residents live in safe, healthy communities with transportation options and have access to services and amenities that support a high quality of life. Or it could be this...

The infrastructure that is readily available and already owned by the public is the road and highway system. This system connects all the major origin and destination nodes in the Houston region. It is why those nodes were created. The circles on the map above show the top 25 job centers in the Houston region. Nearly all of those job centers are in the City of Houston. Eighty-eight percent of the region's people live around those job centers. Transit service is possible everywhere in this infrastructure and in fact already operates widely there. Walkable centers with a variety...

The map above shows the stations for three commuter rail lines as proposed by the Gulf Rail District. The beige area is the City of Houston. Of 20 stations, only 5 or 6 are in the City, mostly as destinations. The great majority serve the citizens of other political entities, people who choose not to live in the City. The number of City of Houston residents who would be served by this system is very small. None of the lines serves the largest job center in the City and region, the Central Business District, although the plan for the Hempstead line recognizes the issue. The only...